First-class Flights for Less — The $339 Business-Class Flight Secret

We’re launching the 2011 edition of our best-selling “How to Get a First-Class Seat for Less” report this week. So, in lieu of our regularly scheduled e-letters, I thought I’d pass along a few of its insider tips on how to get a first-class flight for less.

Like how I found an Executive Class flight from Toronto to Washington, DC on Air Canada for just $339 each way when it typically costs $1,436 or more.

Or how I found business-class flights on Lufthansa to Barcelona, Spain from $980 each way when they typically run between $1,700 to $3,000 each way.

So how did I find these discount fares?

This is one of the secrets we let out in our How to Get a First-Class Seat for Less report.

Airlines often discount luxury seats in business and first class when business travelers aren’t traveling — it’s the business travelers that typically fill those seats. So, rather than let these seats go empty, it opens the door for deep discounts for you.

When are there lulls in business travel?

This holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) is a good time to start watching for low fares, for sure.

In fact, several airlines are already offering these holiday sales now such as Delta, Alitilia, Air NewZealand, KLM, SAS, and the airlines I’m talking about today – Air Canada and Lufthansa.

And it’s a good idea to act on a sale that interests you. The deals go fast. Lufthansa, for instance, was offering a business-class sale to Paris from $685 each way. In a matter of days, it was gone.

Here is another example of a holiday sale…

Upper class on Virgin-Atlantic, for instance, is only $786 each way from Boston or Washington to London, England this Thanksgiving.

It is an incredible deal, because if you were to fly from Boston to London this October 7 – 11, Upper Class would cost you a round-trip fare of $6,481 before taxes. Yet, you save nearly $5,000 with their Thanksgiving Sale – complete with a chair that folds into a fully flat bed, an onboard bar, and the VIP treatment we all need this time of year.

Right now is the time to act on the Thanksgiving business-class sales. But even if you’re not planning to travel over the holidays this year, you’ll find more tips on landing cheaper, luxury fares in our guide.

Use the advice inside, and you can land a great, comfortable seat – no matter when you want to fly.

And when you test-drive our Ultimate Travel Writer’s Program, you’ll learn how to earn back what you paid for your ticket, too.

Stay tuned for more luxury-class flight-finder tips this week and check out our How to Get a First-Class Seat for Less report.

Click here and scroll to the bottom for links to where I found the deals mentioned above, here…